


Constructive Criticism

by scioscribe



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2018-12-31 16:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12136650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scioscribe/pseuds/scioscribe
Summary: But his fascination—when he first met Alexander, he thought,Goddamn, I didn’t know a man could talk that fast—has outlasted his fondness, and he has taken Hamilton’s advice before. So he does read the corrections.





	Constructive Criticism

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Edonohana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/gifts).



Alexander’s claim that he doesn’t want to fight is undermined by three things.

Number one: He actually _has_ enclosed an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements, and, subsection one, it is eerily thorough, covering not just the promised time span but also molehills along with mountains. _You did not collaborate with me even though I totally asked you, very nicely, if you would collaborate with me_ sits alongside _You vacillated so long on whether or not to enlist that sometimes when I talked about blood and you talked about paper, I wanted to stab my pen through your eye._

Number two: Alexander Hamilton has never, ever not wanted to fight. Burr once held a drunk Hamilton’s arm while he flailed after Samuel Seabury, yelling, “Hey, you little tea-sipping shit, you want a piece of this?”

Number three: In addition to the list of grievances, Hamilton has—for real, no fooling—fucking _red-penned_ Burr’s original letter and sent it back to him with helpful suggestions.

Though, knowing Hamilton, he probably does actually think of this as being helpful. Burr looks at the letter and almost wants to laugh—he can feel that old, heady wine of jealous admiration somewhere inside him, ready to be decanted and poured. But then he thinks of the other times Hamilton’s tries to help have involved savaging him and the feeling dies away. It’s been so long, anyway, since they were truly friends. Even the best wine can turn to vinegar.

But his fascination—when he first met Alexander, he thought, _Goddamn, I didn’t know a man could talk that fast_ —has outlasted his fondness, and he has taken Hamilton’s advice before. So he does read the corrections.

 _Dear Alexander_ , [Burr, I know it’s just a _pro forma_ salutation, but you seriously can’t start this kind of letter like this. Look at mine and now look at yours. I’m ice-cold—you’re just a title to me.]

 _I am slow to anger_ [citation needed. You’re slow to _act_ angry, maybe.], _but I toe the line when I reckon with the effects of your life on mine._ [This part isn’t bad.]

 _I look back on where I’ve failed, and in every place I checked, the only common thread has been your disrespect._ [OKAY. Let’s talk about the various strains of bullshit at work here. Number one, Burr, you’re Vice President of the United States, you’re not old and decrepit and hanging around Princeton hoping to tutor students for beer money, okay? You not getting everything you want is not _failing_. I don’t send _you_ pissy little letters talking about how I’m not God Emperor and it’s all your fault. Number two, why are you putting me in the position where I have to give you a pep talk? Number three, if ever before now, and only then with my highest principles and honor at stake, I have been the author of your discontent, I have never known it. Even when I spoke against you, I counted you my friend, and for long after you had ceased to act as mine. Or are you forgetting the actual blackmail attempt?]

 _Now you call me amoral_ [true], _a dangerous disgrace_ [not true, but points for alliteration]. _If you’ve got something to say, name a time and place, face-to-face._

_I have the honor to be,_

_your obedient servant,_

_A. Burr_

[See, now the _pro forma_ closing is appropriate because the body of the letter has contextualized that this is totally sarcastic.]

That’s it. He’s going to kill this motherfucker.

*

Afterwards, he keeps the letter, hidden away so well that no housekeeper or mistress will ever see it to mistake it for a trophy. He takes it out from time to time and looks at the angry slant of his handwriting, looks at Alexander’s looping arrows and scrawled commentary. It looks, he thinks, like the collaboration they might have done if he were not the common thread of his own life, beginning to end.


End file.
